readers with plenty to consider. Ages
10–12. (Mar.)
Enchantment Lake:
A Northwoods Mystery
Margi Preus. Univ. of Minnesota, $16.95
(200p) ISBN 978-0-8166-8302-4
As soon as 17-year-old Francie receives
a distraught phone call from her great-
aunts Astrid and Jeannette in the small
town of Walpurgis, Minn., she hops on a
plane from New York City to check on
them. But when her aunts ask her to look
into their neighbors’ possible murders
(Francie, an actor, once played a kid detec-
tive on a children’s TV
show, and the reputation
has stuck) she wonders if
their nuttiness has turned
to paranoia. They are cer-
tain that a local real-estate
broker, who is buying up
cabins to replace with a
road and condo develop-
ments, is somehow to
blame. As Francie delves
into investigative work,
The slightly open-ended conclusion
ending will leave readers ready for a
sequel. Ages 10–up. (Mar.)
★ Black Dove, White Raven
Elizabeth Wein. Hyperion, $17.99 (368p) ISBN
978-1-4231-8310-5
Wein returns to Africa, the setting of
her Lion Hunters series, with protago-
nists who share an avocation with those
in her award-winning novels Code Name
Verity and Rose Under Fire. Delia and
Rhoda are stunt pilots, barnstorming the
American countryside in the 1920s, each
with a child in tow. When Delia is killed
during an air show, Rhoda commits to
fulfilling their dream of raising Teo,
whose father was Ethiopian, in a place
where he won’t be discriminated against
because of his skin color. Rhoda resettles
Charlotte, 11—in front of a deserted
building in hopes of scaring them into
better behavior. When the children’s
father does not return, they seek refuge
inside the forbidding structure, only to
learn that this safe haven is anything but.
The Witherwood Reform School, where
they discover they’ve landed, is run by
strange adults, haunted by terrifying creatures, populated with puppetlike children,
and emblazoned with odd, depressing
mottos like “Some things aren’t worth
trying” and “Time is a trick of the mind.”
Thompson’s illustrations, mostly
character portraits, are appropriately grim, and there’s never a
dull moment as the siblings
grapple with abandonment, loss,
fear, and the incredible power of
the mind. Skye’s portrayal of
their bravery and hope brings a
ray of hope to the delightfully
creepy story line. Ages 9–12.
Author’s agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling
Lord Literistic. (Mar.)
Flunked
Jen Calonita. Sourebooks Jabberwocky,
$15.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4926-0156-2
Calonita (the Belles series) blithely
samples from fairy tales, nursery rhymes,
and folklore in this lighthearted first book
in the Fairy Tale Reform School series.
Gilly is the 12-year-old daughter of a poor
cobbler who lives in a boot, and she has a
habit of stealing to support her family.
But Gilly’s petty thefts result in her being
shipped off to the Fairy Tale Reform
School, founded by Cinderella’s formerly
wicked stepmother in an effort to eradicate evil from the kingdom of Enchantasia
and “turn wicked delinquents and former
villains into future heroes.” The stakes are
already high for Gilly—while she’s
trapped at the FTRS, she’s anxious about
how her family will make ends meet—
before she becomes embroiled in a plot
within the school, which may affect several of the reformed fairy-tale instructors.
Recognizable fairy-tale characters abound
(profiles of the school’s instructors, like
Xavier Wolfington, the wolf from Little
Red Riding Hood, appear throughout),
and questions of whether goodness or bad-
ness run to the core of a person leave
realized characters. At the heart of the
story is Sôok-dìi, a moon bear cub that
Tam helps raise from infancy. Like Tam,
the bear is a victim of circumstances—
forced to live in a cage and endure experi-
mentation, he is restless and yearns to be
free. Through Tam’s selfless quest to get
the bear back to the wild, and his protec-
tion of the cub at the expense of his own
well-being, readers witness the depths of
his bravery, compassion, and strong moral
compass. Art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12.
Author’s agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry
Goldblatt Literary. (Mar.)
★ The Thickety:
The Whispering Trees
J.A. White, illus. by Andrea Offermann.
HarperCollins/Tegen, $16.99 (528p) ISBN 978-
0-06-225729-1
Given the literal wild ride that ends The
Thickety: A Path Begins, with nascent witch
Kara Westfall and her brother escaping
into the eponymous forest, it’s tempting to
plunge into this sequel at full speed. But
fans of the previous book will be rewarded
by taking the time to savor the uncanny
and blighted realm Kara and Taff must
now cross, pursued by the demonic Sordyr
and aided by legendary witch Mary Kettle.
Among the perils they face are the
Draye’varg (a plain of stone that creates
murderous simulacra from those that cross
it); darkeaters, which kill by consuming
shadows; and Imogen, a tentacled creature
that feeds on the emotions of false memories. Their one chance of defeating Sordyr
may lie in allying themselves with the
adversary who bound him to the Thickety
in the first place. With a plot that coils
like a tangle of brambles and an ending
that, while more predicable, is no less
twisty than that of its predecessor, this
sequel will keep readers invested in Kara
and Taff’s adventures in this dangerous
and imaginative world. Ages 8–12.
Author’s agent: Alexandra Machinist,
Janklow & Nesbit. (Mar.)
Witherwood Reform School
Obert Skye, illus. by Keith Thompson. Holt/
Ottaviano, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8050-
9879-2
In this Snicketesque series opener, Skye
(the Creature from My Closet series) crafts
an imaginative, absorbing tale in which
nothing is as it seems. As the story opens,
